Teacher pay for experience, degrees on line in Shelby County

Student progress may trump service, degrees

The school board faces Tuesday one of the biggest tests of its commitment to education reform: Namely, does it believe enough in the power of effective teaching to tie future teacher pay to it?

For years, districts have paid teachers more for years of service and advanced degrees. The combined city and county district spends nearly $150 million a year — 20 percent of total teacher payroll — rewarding teachers for both.

But national and local research presented to the school board last week showed little or no correlation between either and student achievement. To make the best of scarce resources, administrators want to eliminate extra pay for experience and advanced degrees, except in math and science, starting with those hired after July 1, the day the merger takes place. The proposals are described as a step toward a merit-based compensation system that, pending board approval, would go into effect in 2015.

The conversation was so emotionally charged last week that the board delayed the vote and asked for more information.

"We put so much on experience and going back to school and advanced degrees," board member Joseph Clayton said Monday. "I just have a hard time believing this is the best way to go. I don't know what will change my mind, except if they listen to what I am saying and come back to what used to be."

David Pickler has serious doubts about the research and is annoyed that he is being asked to vote on "thin" data. "First of all, I am very concerned about the model utilized in terms of how they looked at one year's worth of data to determine the relationship between advanced degrees and/or seniority and improved student outcomes," he said, noting that a "very significant number" of teachers do not even teach in tested subjects.

"When you are talking about something as fundamental as compensation, we need to make certain we have a process that is thoroughly vetted through the initial research; that it has an appropriate level of subjectivity and objectivity to ensure that the outcome we are looking for is achieved."

Pickler is president-elect of the National School Boards Association. The state affiliate is on record as opposing the change.

Nationally, the correlation between advanced degrees and student achievement, particularly in elementary schools, is "weak at best," says Dan Goldhaber, director of the Center for Education and Data Research in Seattle. In high school, the only variation is among math and science teachers.

"This is not a new finding, but it strikes people as puzzling and surprising," he said. "It's not puzzling when you look at the kind of degrees teachers are getting. Whenever I look at the data, the most common master's degree is in education administration, which would not purport to make you a better teacher."

According to a 2008 national school staffing survey, the most recent figures available, more than 95 percent of school districts pay teachers for degrees and experience.

Research here shows teachers with the most degrees in the city and county systems had the lowest percentage of the most skilled or Level 5 teachers, based on last year's test scores.

Administrators say the district has invested heavily to align performance evaluations and support systems around teacher effectiveness. Now that it has identified ways to cultivate highly effective teachers, it wants to keep them.

"It's not like degrees don't matter. That is not the case," interim Supt. Dorsey Hopson told the board last week. "The issue is research. With the limited resources we have ... the whole point is to use research-based methods to reward teachers for other factors than just having advanced degrees."

If the board agrees, teachers getting extra pay for degrees and experience would be grandfathered in. Those working on advanced degrees would have until August 2014 to finish them.

They likely will have the right to opt in to the new compensation system the district hopes to have in place by 2015. It would create ways for teachers to increase their pay, including serving in hard-to-staff schools, teaching hard-to-staff subjects, or helping students beyond their classroom through coaching or managing other improvements, says Asst. Supt. Tim Setterlund.

"We have further work to do around that," he said. "We have to make sure our stakeholders have trust and faith in our teacher evaluation system as a measurement tool and that is fiscally sustainable."